Trump Urges States to Redraw Maps, Scrap Elections After Callais Ruling

After the Supreme Court gutted a key provision in the Voting Rights Act (VRA), President Donald Trump insisted over the weekend that Republicans should rig political maps in their favor ahead of the upcoming midterms — even if that means scrapping active elections. In his latest alarming outburst on social media, Trump said Sunday that the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais required states to redraw their electoral maps, claiming that races held under current maps would be unconstitutional. Get updates straight to your inbox — for free Join 350,000 readers who rely on our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest in voting, elections and democracy. “We cannot allow there to be an Election that is conducted unconstitutionally simply for the ‘convenience’ of State Legislatures,”  the president wrote. “We should demand that State Legislatures do what the Supreme Court says must be done.” Trump claimed that redistricting after Callais would give Republicans “more than 20 House Seats” during the upcoming midterms. He also endorsed interrupting active elections to ram the gerrymanders through, even though thousands of votes have already been cast in some races. “If they have to vote twice, so be it,” Trump said. The Supreme Court’s decision all but vacated a provision in the VRA restricting racial gerrymandering and racial discrimination in voting by declaring Louisiana’s congressional map, which included two majority-Black districts, unconstitutional. In response to the court’s decision, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) declared an “emergency” and halted ongoing U.S. House primaries in the state to allow the GOP-controlled legislature to enact a new gerrymander before the midterms. Beyond Louisiana, the ruling has also triggered an onrush of Republican redistricting efforts in Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee — all of which are aimed at wiping out Black political power. In his post, Trump did not clarify that redistricting after Callais would largely benefit the GOP only through the elimination of majority-minority districts across Southern states, which would dramatically diminish minority representation in Congress. Facing disastrous polling ahead of the midterms, Trump and the GOP have turned to politically gerrymandering electoral maps in their favor. The Supreme Court’s ruling last week likely made that much easier, though Democrats have vowed to respond with political gerrymanders of their own.